Thursday, July 24, 2014

Spotlight~ Leila Lacey

Leila Lacey is a romance author living in Michigan. Her
unique, yet titillating, genre blurs the lines between romance, interracial
love and erotica. Now in her late 30’s, Leila has been passionate about writing
since age 10. She can often be found traveling the world, enjoying water
sports, listening to jazz music or volunteering at Vista Maria, a local youth
program for young women. Leila, above all else, loves her friends and family.
It is with their support that she is able to create magical scenes of true
human intimacy on every page. Follow Leila Lacey on her endeavor to be
America’s next New York Time’s Bestselling Author!

Shelby Beasley and Logan Chandler have known each other
for more than 20 years; after all Shelby’s best friend Lance is Logan’s twin
brother. After years of misunderstandings Shelby and Logan have discovered that
they have a hot, heavy and explosive, attraction to each other. The only
problem, Shelby is the oldest daughter of one of the richest families in
Georgia and Logan is a poor ex-con from the other side of the tracks that hates
rich people. Shelby has never known a life of need but never really acclimated
to being one of the “elite”. She is an educated woman that wants it all, what
woman doesn’t, right? Logan and his family have suffered from being a part of
the lower middle class. Looked down on by the wealthy people of Shelbyville,
Georgia simply because of his so called social status. He has developed a
disdain for the wealthy. Can Logan and
Shelby find lasting love together, or will Logan’s demons push Shelby away from
him?

Excerpt

“Logan, this is Ivy Meade,
Shelby’s biological mother,” Lance said. “Ms. Meade, this is my brother,
Logan.” Logan was so worried about Shelby that it took him a minute to register
what Lance had just said about this woman’s hand that he was shaking.

“Please to... Wait WHAT?”
Logan said looking back at Lance like he had lost his mind.

“It a long story, and a
pretty disgusting one, if you ask me, so you may want to wait on the
explanation of what this fiasco is until we find out what is going on with
Shelby.”

Still standing with his
mouth open, Logan looked around the room at all of these always perfect people
and for the first time in his life saw a kink in the amour.

“Agreed,” Logan said
looking at his brother and mouthing ‘what the fuck?’ Just as he was trying to
understand the collection of people that were and weren’t gathered at the
hospital, a doctor and nurse walked into the room.

“Are you the family for
Shelby Beasley?” the older portly doctor said. Logan recognized him from his
shop last week. He had brought in his
antique car for repairs. Logan marveled
that he would not have guessed that this man was a doctor standing in his
garage. Guess you can’t judge a book by its cover. Logan had never gotten that
saying until now.

“Yes, Doctor! How is my
daughter?” Sarah Beasley said standing and coming to stand directly in from of
him. That, in itself, was weird to Logan. Sarah Beasley was here and wringing
her hands in anxiety and Jackson Beasley was nowhere to be seen.

Taking a deep breath, the
doctor said, “Would you like to sit down?”

“NO, NO! I don’t want to
sit down. Tell me what is going on with my daughter,” Sarah yelled at the
doctor.

“Well, she has an extensive
list of injuries. Her spleen is ruptured, her liver is lacerated and she has
eight broken ribs, and her right leg and arm are broken. Now, Shelby has a rare
blood type and she had lost so much blood, we will need to do a blood
transfusion.

Is there anyone here with Rh negative or O blood type?” the doctor
said. The woman that had been introduced to Logan as Ivy, raised her hand and
said, “I do.”

Shocked, the doctor said,
“Well, that is rare. Are you related to
Shelby?” the doctor asked looking around the room.

“Yes! She is her
biological mother” Cassidy said to the doctor.

“Ok, I can see this is
complicated. Ok, Miss, if you will go with my nurse we can start collecting
some blood from you.” The doctor paused to look down at the tablet that he had
in his hand. “Unfortunately, the baby did not make it,” the doctor said. He did
not realize he had just dropped a bomb on everyone.

“Wait WHAT?” Logan said to
the doctor grabbing his arm. “What did you just say?” he finished.

Looking around at the people
in the room, the doctor said, “Yes, you all didn’t know? Shelby was 12 weeks
pregnant.”

“WHAT?” came all the
voices in the room like a choir “PREGNANT?”

Blog Post

The inspiration of the
Legacy Series actually came from a personal place for me. My grandmother used
to speak of the legacy of our family to us as her grandchildren a great deal.
As I am the mother of an eighteen year old young man, I have started to look at
the legacy of MY family which, let me tell you, is a book in itself.... WOW!

I used to know a woman that was a TRUE
Southern Belle from the crown of her head to the tip of her toes. She was as sweet as peach pie, I tell you.
But if you messed with her, her husband or her kids, you would be less afraid
of Hurricane Katrina. So in thinking about a series of books that I wanted to
write about a family legacy, her “Southern Charm” came to mind and the rest, I
guess you could say, is history.

One of my favorite things
about this series is the grandmother, Queenie. Her words, mannerisms and place
within her family is my maternal grandmother, with creative license of course.
I was very close to her. She one of my favorite people in the world, still is
to be honest with you, and she has been deceased for a number of years. So if I
can say I have had any “hurdles” in writing this series, it is when it comes to
writing Queenie.

I always get that little hitch in my chest and longing to sit
and talk with her and hear her thoughts on my writing, the genre I have chosen,
the sex in my books and just my life on a day to day basis. I have been so
amazed and honored at how many people like my stories and get what I am trying
to deliver. I have always loved that my maternal aunt was the first person to
introduce me to the genre of romance. I used to go and visit my grandmother
each summer and I remember spending hour after hour reading her Harlequin
Romance books. After a few years, she would take me to the library every couple
of weeks to get my own so I would relinquish her books. Ahh, those summers are
some of my best memories. I do remember thinking the one element that I wanted
in some of those stories is some type of humor. I love to laugh and to make
people laugh and in my opinion a lot of romance books are passionate and
serious but they don’t have any humor. We all love to laugh, and we all like a
little tasteless humor every now and then. Or is that just me and my dirty
crazy mind? Anyway, the other thing that was missing in my opinion was the
“real” conversation. What I mean by that is, while we ALL do not swear all the
time but we do swear every now and then. What woman has not slung an F bomb
when she was mad at her man? I would like to meet her so she can help me with
my F bombs, because if I was on TV and I was mad at my man, there would be a
whole lot of beeps. Anyway, I wanted the conversations between girlfriends and
significant others to be real. I wanted to feel like I could hear or see this
conversation between these people.

Now since I have been published, I get a lot
of comments that people do not like that I have made “professional” people into
Ghetto birds, which I think is interesting because we, as a society, put such
exaltation on “positions” like, “Ok, I am a doctor and so now I never talk
dirty with my girlfriends and we never say crazy things to each other and call
each other out or I am a CEO, so I don’t get mad and want to slap the hell out
of a person that crosses me.” Our
profession does not negate what we are; PEOPLE that have tempers, and dirty
minds, and curse and swear when we are amongst our friends and loved ones. So
that critique confuses me, but I take all my reviews good and bad and try to
incorporate what the reader wants to see into future works. I do not change
things totally to what each person wants because, let’s face it, sometimes
those that are afraid to do or can’t do are the first ones to critique your
work BUT, I am not perfect and I am new to this. I also believe we can always
learn from triumph and mistakes. I will say to my critiques on the books that I
have written about race; what you read is a reality of our society. There are racist people in every race. Acting like it does not happen is irrational
in my opinion and what I write is from a perspective of healing certain race
relations NOT glorifying them. I am bringing a light to the ignorance, anger
and hate. On the topic of interracial relationships and race relations; I am
not now, nor have I ever been, a racist person. Do I know people that are
racist? Yes. Do I try to encourage them to be better? Yes. Do I stop befriending them because of their
struggle and demons? No. It is not my place to judge any man or woman.

Lastly to those that have
read my books and given good and bad critiques, thank you so much. Honestly
from the depth of my soul, thank you. I am living my dream, I am writing and I
am entertaining and making people happy. I cannot be happier in this journey
so, thank you. Even to those that don’t like me or my work; you have to admit,
I got to you. Maybe not the way I would
have hoped but, hey, we cannot win them all… right?

Author Interview

Has your perspective on the writing process changed
since you became published?

Absolutely; one thing I
have found is that I can get into writing. I can be writing 2 to 3 books at a
time. I will get so wrapped in my books or research of the book that I want to
write and I will forget that I need to cook dinner, or that I have not spoken
to my family and friends other than a ‘hi’ and ‘bye’ in days. So I have
definitely gotten a great respect for writers that are writing amazing books or
CRAP books and still juggle a family, career, friends and hygiene!

Do you work best on a deadline, or do you need freedom
from time constraints?

No constraints. I have not
really been under a publisher’s deadline. I am an indie author, so any
deadlines that I have are created by me. Believe me I can be harder on myself
than any publisher could. I had to stop
doing that because I was stressing myself the hell out.

Is there a word or phrase you catch yourself overusing?

Yes, Laughing
hysterically! I have recently realized that my friends and I laugh so much when
we are talking to each other and spending time together that I have transferred
that into my books.

How do you know you’ve written a good book?

HA! I know I have written
a good book when I am writing it and I say (excuse the language) ‘SHUT THE FUCK
UP!’ I find that when I am writing I will have a plan and while I am
mid-paragraph, I will change my mind on where I want to go with the story and
go off the top of my head and surprise the HELL out myself! Ha Ha!

How do you keep your characters and stories organized?

I have a character excel
spreadsheet. I will think of a name I want to use in the future or hear a name
I want to use and I put it in that spreadsheet.
Then once I have a story line, I will go into the spreadsheet and pick
the names of the characters for the story line.
Once I use the names in a story, I put the name of the book next to the
name.

Are you a Swooper (write first, edit later,) a Basher
(edit each sentence as you go,) or both?

I am a Swooper a TERRIBLE
Swooper! Ha Ha! I hate editing, hate hate hate. Did I say hate? Ha Ha. I will go through the entire book sometimes
250 pages and go through and do a spell check. Then I have a friend that I have
read it for me, tell me all the errors and I change them, then I send it to the
editor.

What is the one thing you must have to be able to
write?

Ice tea, potato chips and
music. Oh and my Boston terrier, Ruby.
She is my love-bug and for some reason, she has always been protective
of me. I got her when she was five months old. She will sit in her doggie bed
and sleep while I write and if she is outside or with my kids while I am
writing, it feels like something is off.

What types of scenes are your favorite to write?

Conversation scenes; so
for me, that is, I like a lot of conversation rather than description. When I
write, I think ‘how do I think this topic and this conversation will go between
these two personalities of these characters? How do I think this conversation
would go?’ Then I just go. I LOVE it! I will find myself laughing out loud or even
crying. When you can touch yourself… in my humble dirty opinion… you have
talent. Ha Ha.

How do you feel about the term “Mommy Porn”?

What the what now? Ok, I
do not get why when you become a mother you are expected to not be kinking and
freaky. Then you get the husbands that are like, ‘well, once the kids came, you
stopped wanting to swing from the chandelier with me.’ That’s because when she
had that baby, she became a “mom” and so can no longer be a big old freak! Mommy Porn to me is societies’ way of saying,
’you can’t like to have your ass spanked with your arms tied above your head
with a silk scarf.’ Yes, I said it! Ha Ha!

I think it is crap. I am a
mommy, so I will never allow sexual photos or videos to be taken of me because
lets’ face it, you really can’t control that; other than that… what I do in the
bedroom does not affect the mother that I am. They entirely are two separate
entities.

I also think that women
prefer to use their imagination more than men. NOT ALL but most and with dirty
books you can do that. You can picture yourself with this delicious man that
has been described. But with “daddy porn” THERE IT IS… who-ha and ding-a-ling,
no imagination necessary! Ha Ha

Do you prefer to write 1st or 3rd
Person POV? Why?

I actually like 3rd person
POV because in my POV, it’s easier to write the emotions and thoughts of both
main characters.

What do you feel are the most important aspects to a
good romance?

Passion, communication,
and a description of what both parties are feeling for each other.

Are you always in the driver’s seat? Or do your
characters drag you along for the ride?

No, I am not always in the
driver’s seat. My characters’ personalities tell me what they want to say and
do and there are times when I am like, ‘HEY I am the writer here. SHHH!’ Ha
Ha. Wait, does that mean I have multiple
personalities? Ha Ha.

What is your least favorite part of the writing
process?

EDITING, and FORMATTING!
Ha ha

Lightning Round

What is your most cherished
possession?

My father’s flag from his military burial, and some
handkerchiefs that my grandmother handmade for me.

How do you feel about being the center
of attention?

I am a little uncomfortable with it. People can be so
mean and hateful and I can be really sensitive sometimes. So being in the spot
light is scary to me sometimes.

What makes you blush?

A sexy man telling me I am sexy. Naked people!

How do you feel, generally, about the opposite sex?

What is your worst habit?

Finger nail biting and swearing

Do you have any irrational fears or
phobias?

Spiders, bugs, and lightening

How do you think your exes would describe you?

How deeply does your job / social role define you as a
person?

What are you the most hopeless at?

Staying angry at people that hurt or violate me. I will
forgive and let them right back into my life leaving room for me to be hurt
again.